


ashes and cornflowers

by hereforthehurts



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Febuwhump, Gen, Ghostbur, Hurt/Comfort, I said WERE, Niki and Wilbur moment, No Plot, Regret, Sad Parental Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Whump, Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings, happy ending promiss, niki burns the l'mantree, only pain, the first time everyone sees wilbur as a ghost, they were in love guys stfu, well mediocre maybe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29376543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hereforthehurts/pseuds/hereforthehurts
Summary: There's three people Wilbur first visited as a ghost - his father, his brother, and the girl he once loved.
Relationships: Niki | Nihachu/Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Comments: 3
Kudos: 58
Collections: Completed stories I've read





	ashes and cornflowers

**Author's Note:**

> For febuwhump day 12; "who are you?" starring Ghostbur!! I want pain for each one of you.

Wilbur had to recall his father’s name a few times before he finally remembers.  
  
  
Well, to be fair—he didn’t really remember his own name, at first. He woke up in a field where all he could see was ruins and rubbles, stretching over all the way to the horizon. He didn’t bother to ask what had happened there, didn’t bother to see that something was wrong.  
  
  
Somehow that scene was already oddly familiar to him, in a way.  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
“Wilbur.”  
  
“That’s me.” He smiles giddily, “that’s my name. Wilbur.”  
  
The man in front of him doesn’t smile with him. Wilbur could see it, the sadness reflecting in his eyes, but he doesn’t let that unsettle him—instead, he stands up from the rock he was sitting and drifts closer to a single blue cornflower, standing lonely in the middle of the ruined land.  
  
It was pretty, but he didn’t want to kill it. So instead, he picked up the whole block and brings it with him in his arms.  
  
“Wilbur,” the man begins again, not turning around to face him when he spoke. “You don’t—you don’t remember anything? You don’t remember… me?”  
  
Wilbur frowns. “Don’t be sad,” he tells him, circling the place so that he could see the man’s face. “I don’t remember my own name before you told me.” Wilbur smiles again when he recalls his own name—it felt like having a piece of him back again. “Thank you for that. I’m Wilbur.”  
  
“Yeah, I know.” A smile tugs up on the corner of his mouth. “Wilbur, Wilbur.”  
  
“True,” Wilbur beams. “How did you know my name?”  
  
“Oh, Wilbur,” The man sighs sadly. “How could I forget? You’re my son.”  
  
  
  
(“ _And I’m the one who killed you.”)  
  
  
  
  
_

_  
  
  
_

_  
  
_He sees his brother—or so as he was told—sharpening his sword on a repetitive motion down in his dirt house, expressionless, as if he was in a trance. There were scars and half-healed bruises all over his face, his arms, his legs—Wilbur only wished he could remember why they were there.  
  
If he was truly his brother, then… maybe all this love in his heart finally has somewhere to go to. Right? That’s what brothers do, as far as he knows.  
  
“Hello.”  
  
The boy jumps out of his skin. “Holy _shit,_ wh—” he squints at him. “Wilbur…?”  
  
“I’m him.” Wilbur grins. “Who are you? Our… _dad,_ he told me your name, but I forgot now.”  
  
“Oh. I,” he stared at him with his big, blue eyes, “I’m… you don’t remember?”  
  
“I’d love to, but I didn’t even remember my name before dad told me.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Well?” Wilbur walks— _floats—_ around, “are you going to tell me?”  
  
“Tommy,” he says, “I’m… Tommy.”  
  
“Tommy,” Wilbur grins again. “My brother.”  
  
“Well, yes.” Tommy shrugs, not taking his eyes off him. “How… how’re you alive? I—they told me you were dead.”  
  
“Well, I am dead,” Wilbur copies his shrug. “I’m just… here.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I don’t know!” He shrugs again. “Anyway, I have this flower. Wanted to plant it somewhere nice, away from here. Do you want to come?”  
  
“I…” Tommy’s eyes were glassy with tears. “You really don’t remember, don’t you?”  
  
“Remember what?”  
  
His brother’s face froze, like there was a battle inside him, as intense as whatever had happened to this land he’s standing in. Wilbur’s heart aches for the first time since he’s dead—he doesn’t want his brother to be upset. Especially not because of him.  
  
  
  
_Tommy, Tommy, his little brother.  
  
  
_Memories started coming back to him, little by little, trickling into his mind like dripping water. He remembers being proud of him. He remembers protecting him. He remembers loving him.  
  
“You know what, it’s… it’s not important.” Tommy finally speaks up, and Wilbur silently agrees with him. _Yeah. It’s not important._  
  
  
Because he remembers loving him. And it was enough, for now.

Strangely, Wilbur remembers her name almost immediately in his head, unlike he had been with everyone else. He doesn’t know what that means.  
  
  
  
He watches her disheveled pink hair flow gently with the breeze that brings up the leftover dust and ash for a long while. She’s… sitting there, kneeling in front of a burnt tree. A tree so familiar, but he couldn’t recall why. Instead, the girl’s name came up to his mind.  
  
  
Niki. _Niki, Niki, Niki._  
  
  
“Niki,” he calls for her. She doesn’t budge. “Hey, Niki.”  
  
  
No answer. It was as if she was a statue, petrified, half-buried in the soil of this ruined land.

It was only when he walked around her that she finally looks up, bags under her eyes, red and swollen from tears. “Oh… wow. Are you…” He shifts, “okay?”  
  
“Yeah,” Niki stares up at him for a moment before laughing half-heartedly. “The best I’ve ever been.”  
  
“Well, that’s a lie,” Wilbur tells her. “You look upset.”  
  
“And you’re dead.”  
  
“I am,” Wilbur nods, matter-o-factly. “I’m a ghost. A ghost. Ghost Wilbur. _Ghostbur_ ,” He grins. “Ghostbur—yeah. You can call me that. Ghostbur.”  
  
“Okay.” She deadpans.  
  
  
  
Silence fills the space between them once again.  
  
  
  
“I mean, you can call me Wilbur too, if you like,” Wilbur shifts in his place again. “Or—”  
  
“Will,” Niki stares into the distance. “I used to call you that. Will.”  
  
“Yeah,” He smiles. “You look upset. Do you want to talk about it?”  
  
“You don’t remember,” she whispers.  
  
“Well, I don’t remember a lot of things.” He shrugs. “A lot of things but your name.”  
  
  
Niki looks up into him. Helpless, defeated… Wilbur could see the regret in her eyes as he’s seen it in everybody else’s.  
  
  
“I did a horrible thing, Will,” she whispers again, tears spilling out her eyes like a dam that’s finally broken. “You’d never forgive me.”  
  
“Of course I would,” Wilbur says softly, kneeling beside her. He wraps his arms around her as she began to sob into his chest, her hands clutching onto him like he was her lifeline. “I mean, I remembered loving you. I always have.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Wilbur strokes her hair gently, “but I’d like to find out.”  
  
  
  
More silence. Niki doesn’t let him go.  
  
  
“Let’s do that,” he says, “find out. I have a pretty cornflower I’d like to plant somewhere else, anyway. Would you like to come with me?”  
  
Niki looks up. “Where?”  
  
“Anywhere,” Wilbur looks around, “somewhere nicer.”  
  
“This is our home, Will.”  
  
“Was,” he says. “I think you deserve to be somewhere much better than this place. Like this cornflower.”  
  
Niki just stares at him.  
  
Wilbur stands up. “Well, are you coming?”  
  
“I’d go anywhere if it’s with you,” she whispers. Another tear runs down her face.  
  
“Then come on,” he pauses before grinning, “cornflower.”  
  
“Cornflower,” Niki repeats.  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
_Cornflower._  
  
  
She could live with that.  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> as usuall, yell at me at [my tumblr blog !!](https://hereforthehurts.tumblr.com/)


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